Hey there everyone!!

I found you all, after being so long with out BT boards adn i read a post about this one, thank god i found it before the name change too!!

I have missed you all, and hope to catch up with everyone too!! I have been going through **** and back since last time we all talked and only getting worse.

I saw my doc in sept and he finnaly decided that a pain pump is my next step and having baclofen and some other narcotic in the pump to try and flatten out my foot and also help my pain, bc it has gotten out of control. I usually have been able to sleep through the nite once i find a good position where im nothing is touching my foot , but now its soo bad that it just aches and horribly hurts just laying there and if i do get to sleep, it wakes me up just with intense pain in my ankle. but you all know how that is and its just finally either changing the pain levels or?? and im feeling it again, when i have become "numb" to it to a point before.

I decided to take some classes at a local college to see if i could get my mind off of it and also be able to get my second degree. I am taking one nite class once a week in math (god its been 10 years since i took math and im bad..lmao but have a 91 in the class so far..) and the other 3 are online classes so i can self pace myself and do them when ever and even at 3 am when im awake!! All those classes are doing good and the professor knows what i am going through and understands that i might be a little late on submitting a test, and says its not a prob and wont mark me down for that either. so i guess i am doing ok and to a point that it is taking my mind off it, but sometimes its just to great and im glad that i have foudn you all agian!! you are the only ones that really know what im going through!!

I decided to get the pain pump on Jan 8th. so i wouldnt miss or get really be hind in any of my classes. if i knew that my doc had this in his pocket i wouldnt have signed up for classes but i saw him 3 weeks after they started so i was stuck.

Does anyone have the pain pump?? i would like to hear stories of the surg's and having the pump good or bad. I want to be prepared for this when i go in, and i have been throuhg having a stim and a peripheral stim put in and i know its nothing like that!! Any help would be MUCH appreciated !!

Ok.. gotta try and get some breakfast!

Love,
Amber
(RSD_Angel)

I just wanted to post a pic of what my RSD looks like. Its not gross pic but an abnormal one that you prob wont see again!! I was in myrtle beach SC visiting my bro on vaca that i desperatly needed adn walked out on the beach for the first time in years.. I wasnt gonna let the pain ruin this for me and i got a pic of my foot steps in the sand, well ok.. a foot step in a 1/2!! Its a unique pic and my parents finally understood from this pic how much it really is messed up!!

Thanks guys.. let me know what you think or if you have pics too!!



PS>. thanks Curious!!!

Attached Images

foot in sand pic.jpg (45.1 KB, 115 views)

welcome amber! glad you found us.

to post a picture in the body of the post, you have to host it on a site like www.photobucket.com . copy and paste the img codes.

So glad you did find us! Sorry to hear that your pain levels have sky rocketed.

Do you remember Sheila? The gal who had the love for Harley's? I nick named her Vroom Vroom? She had the Pump put in this summer. She hasn't logged on yet, but I wish she would.

I'm very glad that you are taking a class at the college and you've told the professor of your health issues. Will take some of the stress off. But geez a 91 is a great start. Keep up the good work!

Your doctor will go to trial first right? I pray that this will give you lasting relief and bring your pain levels down.

Dana

Hi Angel,
glad you found us.
I don't have the pump yet, but I'm looking forward to getting it.
I have heard it will help us with swelling, burning pain, color changes.
I wish you all the best in getting yours. Congratulations!
Hope

Amber,
WOW! Those look JUST like my footsteps! I mean...EXACTLY! Weird, because I thought that I was the only one that walked like that. To hear my docs and all of the PT and Orthotic folks talk that I have been to, I am. LOL...reckon they are wrong! (which I guess shouldn't be too suprising to find out they were wrong about something else, considering how wrong they were about so many things,,,especially for the first 2, 3 years or so. LOL)

I haven't been to a beach to get footsteps like that (don't know how you stood the sand? It would have driven me crazy..OWIE!), but that is what my wet footprints look like. Well...except, you have a much nicer arch in your good foot. ROFL, I am about as flat footed as they come, so my good foot looks more like a splat-print with little toes on top of it, rather than a pretty foot print like yours.

Weirder still? My Bad RSD foot is also my RIGHT foot!!! I just sat here, looking at your pic again, and finally figured out that it is YOUR right foot too! (Sorry, takes me a minute or two, or 10, to figure those kinds of things out sometimes. LOL).

What do you do about shoes? I can only wear ones that don't completely enclose my foot. You know, the slide on ones? In fact, now that it has turned off cold, I will pretty much live in my huge big slippers (seriously...they are HUMONGOUS! Very soft, very big, very WARM...and don't hurt at all. My Mom got them for me on my last trip to Vegas to see my folks for Christmas, because I left my other pair here at home..DUH!) because they are the nicest shoes I have for my poor RSD foot. I do have, and can wear, other shoes beside slippers, but they ALL are the slide on kind...and they all are roomy, as to not hurt my foot. If that makes any sense?

Plus, it makes it easier to kick off. I kick off my left shoe when I drive, as I drive with that foot (well, actually, I kick off both shoes usually because I would rather sit in sock feet than in shoe feet. LOL). Do you drive? If you do, do you use your left foot, or have you figured out some way to drive with your bad foot? I haven't been able to figure out any way to do that at all. But I am an absolute PRO at driving with my left foot. Been doing it so long now, that I probably would have problems swapping back if all of a sudden I could. LOLOL..I know, that sounds weird.

Anyway..I was just zooming through here before heading off to try to get a little bit of sleep, but when I saw your pic, I just had to post. I really, really didn't think that there was anyone else out there that walked like I did. I don't see any cane or crutch holes by your steps...so you are able to walk around well without one? You don't have problems with your leg (ankle, knee...or any other parts) just giving out on you all of a sudden and without warning? I have that happen...especially if I have walked a fair bit. I usually do pretty good around the house, and for very short distances, and can get away without my "other leg"...but for anything else? Nope. I have fallen, or come too close to it too many times. I also wind up having to use a chair when I am out and about doing "big things" with folks, that involve lots of walking and/or standing...just so I can make sure I can keep up. Do you have to, too? If not...do you have any good suggests about how to keep the leg from giving out?

Wow...I just can't get over this pic. I really, cant. Thanks for posting it. It is just amazing to me how very similar our footsteps are! I wish that I had some pics of mine to post...but I don't. Don't have digital camera, either. Is that what you used? Can a regular camera be used to do this somehow? If that is possible...then maybe I can get some pics of mine up here sometime too, so you can see why I am going on and on about it. WOW!

Sorry that I am babbling and this wound up being so long. I am was just so surprised...and it is always kinda dangerous for me to post late at night, as that is when I tend to talk even MORE than usual! LOL.

Hope that you are having a good night and weekend!

((hugs))
Jose

Amber...
Just because I saw you were on line, and I am kinda excited about seeing someone else that walks, and has foot affected like me.

Not that it is a good thing, because I would rather that you DIDN'T have RSD at all.....Sheesh. I hope you know what I mean??

Hope you are having a good day so far...

((hugs))
Jose

Hi Joselita!!

The sand was yes very very pain ful, but I wasnt gonna let my foot stop me from having this probalby once in a life time chance of walking onthe sand agian. ( ya know!! but you should see the pics of my foot after i go back to the house!! OMG.. i swear to god my foot looked like i was the stay puff guy from the ghost busters movie!!)

Im only able to wear a ortho boot on my right foot right now. Its has a flat sole and 2 velcro straps that go over the top of my foot and the rest is all open. I cant have anything touch my toes!! they are the worst and i couldnt get them to desentitize when the PT guys did it withe my foot. So I wear a sock on my right foot and have the toe part of it pulled out so that the sock doesnt touch the toes. I wish i could wear a slipper or sometihng like that!! it would be easier to go through stores with out stares, becuase people can see that my foot is very crooked and it cant really be that way. well yes it can and is and belelvie me i get asked those questions all the time. I dont mind , i just hate explaining that i have RSD adn now one knows waht that is and then to explain that.. and it still doesnt trigger anytihnh.. soo i just say that i hurt it and it healed in the wrong way.. easy adn can get away faster..lmao

I do drive.. i wont give that up with out a good fight!! i also drive with my left foot, but on good days that my right one isnt hurting that bad i can use my right to just push on the gas. I dont have the ankle movement of side to side or up and down so i use my knee to press and release .. its tricky but i got it down pat, so i use that one ofr the gas and the left for the brake! I am a pro, but i get tired easily so long trips are out, unless there are breaks!!

I have no crutches or canes at all.. i coudl use one ! i love places that have carts because i push them around and they get alot of the wt off my foot and easy to walk around the store. my doc took my crutches away, because he wants me to use it as much as i can, so i can keep as much bone density in there i have. because if you dont walk on the foot, you loose bone mass adn that means i can fracture easily, so he wants me to fully walk on it before i really cant anymore.. adn i am getting to that point , but not willingly!! I prob will be getting a cane soon, and i do use the wheelchair when i know that i am gonna be out for awhile!! My good leg does give out and so does my bad one. My mom deosnt know that , but i dont want to scare her even more then she is...

Yea you can use other pics to post, you dont have to have a dig. camera.. im pretty sure you can scan them if you have a scanner, or you can have them put on a CD at wallmart and you can get them on here that way!!

I too cant get over that there are more people with my foot!! and know exactly how it feels and what i go through in a day. its one thing to say that someone with RSD knows how i feel... but to have a foot that looks exactly like mine adn it feels that same! god bless you and you are very special to me!! all of you are that have the foot prints like mine!!!!!

I dont know if i can give out my screen name so you can IM me when i am on. So we can talk a little more with out having to post it all out..not that i dont want everyone to join in, i just want to get to know you and what you go thrgough is like what i do!!

I will ck the terms and conditions and if i dont see anytihng i will post it later!!

have to try and get some sleep!! Talk to you later!!


Amber

PS where do you live??? I live in Upstate NY!!